Grain Trucks and Inadequate Bridges

For years now I have noticed grain trucks on rural highways during the Fall.

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The height of the trailer is lower than a regular trailer, and the top is a tarp that rolls up to one side for easy loading. What I did not notice until after I asked grain elevator people if they could lift a semi-truck was that they have hopper bottoms. Not even the big elevators have truck lifts. They do have two pits next to each other so that both hoppers can be emptied at the same time.

The Chicago Tribune had an article about how much inadequate bridges in Illinois are costing the farmers. A loaded grain truck weighs 80,000 pounds, but some of the bridges are rated for less than 40,000 pounds. If the truck itself weighs 10,000 pounds, that means that they can carry less than 30,000 pounds instead of 70,000 pounds, and a farmer has to pay for more than twice the truck trips he should need to get his crop to market. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find that article again. I do remember that it mentioned that one farmer needed 538 truckloads to get his corn crop to a grain elevator. It did not mention the distance to the grain elevator. The article cited farm organizations that are educating state administrators about the cost to farmers of derating bridges because they have not been properly maintained. During a trip last weekend, I did notice that one of the bridges I went over on a US highway looked new. So maybe IDOT now understands that not all truck traffic is on interstate highways.

Actually, it is not just farmers that need good rural bridges. Since most villages get all of their supplies -- gas, food, etc. -- via trucks, the towns also need good bridges. Even if a town still has a railroad going through it, the railroad is not going to do local switching to deliver goods to the town.